Come back on Sunday night to see how well your Drabble has done. At least come back before Monday 15:00 to check if you're the one that has to provide us with a topic.

Please vote. And a warning to all of the contestants, Don't vote for yourself or else you'll get a close encounter with my lasers

01 - Listeri69 - There is one way to kill the alien, but it does involve a lot of custard.....

'Is that an Alien or a meringue?' Psykokow looked out of his Asp.
'No you're right it's an Alien' Simoof replied
'Well shouldn't we be doing something? Fire the lasers at it!'
'I tried that didn't work, I launched a mug at it, two slaves, and I even flushed the sewage into its face didn't even blink'
'Let's get out of here before it kills us'
'Can't do that. It took out the engines'
'So we're just floating here, in space?'
'Well I do have one last idea, Load up episode 85 of Lave radio and engage the space speakers'

02 - Frank - If This Doesn't Win Me the Mug, Nothing Will

The employment agent introduced the prospective employee to Farmer Giles. "FluffyBun here can tell you how many hens you have in your space farm."

"That's right! It's a farm... in the Elite Universe." He shows his certificate of authentication to you.

"And that's FluffyBun, one of the Drabbler regulars."

"Except he's not so much fluffy, more... ", Farmer Giles wrinkled his nose in disgust, "...furry."

FluffyBun saw that he might not get the job. He stepped towards Farmer Giles to plead with him.

Farmer Giles went into hysterics. "Stay away! I can't stand close hen counters of the furred kind!"

Every news service was running the Encounter story; Hutton Orbital thronged with journalists reporting from the most distant deep space facility inside a two hour commute from their office.

Frank knocked back the Janx, recalling an encounter from his Jameson days. Alien murmured coyly that she would explain the origin of her call-sign for the right price while in another corner Simoof threatened to get out his DJ equipment unless people kept buying him drinks.

“I had a close encounter” I said.
“No? Really?” He said.
“Yes”.
“How close?”
“Bloody close”.
“Did you get her number?”
“I’m not talking about a woman”.
“So did you get his number?”
“Or a man?”
“Pity, if you had a lover maybe you’d stop bothering me at lunch”.

I threw my pudding at him.

“Aliens” I whispered.
He shot me a glance.
“This time it’s real. In Aries-Dark…….”
“Stop”. He held up his hands. “Please don’t, not again.”
“It’s true.”
“You just got your pilots licence back.”
“Ok.”
“Keep taking your pills and shut up about aliens.”
“Sorry mate.”

"I don't want him!"
"I understand your objection, but we're short handed, Stevens is the only qualified telepresence fighter pilot available."
"He's a hooligan and should be dishonourably discharged!"
The CO shook his head. "If you have proof of anything beyond a couple of close encounters..."
"HE DOES IT ALL THE TIME!" The lieutenant blew his top. "Last time he dinged the canopy, Ensign James nearly cacked himself because of it!"
"Well, a soiled flight suit is not something we can demerit him for, and the canopy was not damaged, so we can't really go higher than a verbal warning."

07 - Alien - Spared An Ode To Tea

Docking Control to Commander Tom
Docking Control to Commander Tom
Take your anti-shart pills and put clean trousers on
Docking Control to Commander Tom
Docking countdown timer is on
Check your speed, and may DP Sayre's luck be with you

This is Docking Control to Commander Tom
You've really screwed that jump
And now Galnet wants to know what colour is your underwear
Now it's time to reboot your ship if you dare

This is Commander Tom to Docking Control
I really sharted my pants
And aliens scanned me in the most peculiar way
And the stars look scarier to-daaa-aaa-aay

08 - insanephoton - A Cautionary Verse

While trucking out I met my bane
Captain Wirral was his name.
A harmless Eagle posed no threat
At least that's what I would have bet
Most pirates thought him a prat
With his demise a buglike splat
It really is a crying shame
that for his death I got blamed
The failed corsair's last interdiction
left him in a poor position
ahead my ship he dropped from space
as I boosted to a rapid pace.
The cops thought it a crime
and fried my ship in record time
To avoid my sorry fate
near stations always slow down mate

09 - Commander Sir Samuel Vimes - The Lave station funeral wake

The wake at lave station bar had been going on for months as people straggled in from all corners of the galaxy. Tales were told of close encounters with Thargons in witchspace and heroic escapes from supernovae. From grizzled old captains to wide eyed freeagle pilots they kept on coming.

The tales got taller but there were funny stories too, he'd told everyone the elite pilots federation had forgotten he existed as he hadn't ranked up for years. Behind the bar a small badge glinted, every so often a murmur went round the bar as a toast was made.

Jameson

10 - FelixBast - !Pizza

“I’ve been probed by an Alien.”

“Congratulations! It’s a while since you got your leg over.”

“No! I had an Alien encounter.”

“That’s racist.”

“What!?”

“Just because someone’s not from around here, is no excuse for being racist.”

“I was in deep space and I had a close encounter of the third kind.”

“Is that one of those Zero-G Kamasutra positions for threesomes?”

“God no! Listen. I was travelling through hyperspace, when my ship was interdicted by an Alien vessel that scanned and probed my ship.”

Moments later a mercenary entered the red-light district thinking, 'this is an odd meeting place'.

12 - RoyalHankey - Galactic Middens encounter with ??????

Thargoids were believed to be a myth.
An alien race that only true believers believe now.
So when Galactic Midden came back to Lave, no one would believe his encounter.
He said "Look, look, look, look, LOOK!!!! there at this mark on my ship".
"That's where the alien hit me"
"You probably hit the ground AGAIN trying land" Mouse666 replied.
"No, no, no, NO!!!! that mark is where the alien ship hit me".
"Whatever" said Mouse666.
Did Galactic Midden hit the ground?.
Was it a Thargoid?
Did he dream it or was this a close encounter of the 4th kind.

13 - Simoof - I want to be touched by an Alien - A story of love, romance and fingering.

Commander Jimmy burped. It smelled of cheese. Strange, he had not had dairy for a long time.
He had plotted a route all around Miai.
The monkey had managed to escape its cage and was flinging poo everywhere.
In his cargo hold he had mugs, gin, beer and a pair of Kows unwashed underpants.
And had some weird bobble head in his cockpit.
He had photos of the crashed wreckage blown up and painted on to his pink orca.
He was wearing a rubber suit missing the bottom half.
Surely this time he would get flowerdicted by the brown starfish.

14 - Cmdr-Wotherspoon - A Close Encounter

There was a time when there was conflict between races. It stopped, and as time passed, we forgot. We didn’t remember, perhaps we never really knew. We were free to travel, to expand, to colonise. Sometimes we wondered why we were alone, but it didn’t trouble us.

Then “The Antares”. Then “Starship One”. The Artifacts and the Probes. Meta-Alloys. We dismantled the wall The Guardians had built to protect us. We knew better, but we did it anyway. We ate from the Tree of Knowledge and the fruit it bore had eight sides.